Sun archives: Art Modell

A Cleveland Browns fan who uploaded a video of himself apparently urinating on former Ravens owner Art Modell's grave last month was identified and charged Tuesday with disorderly conduct in a cemetery, Baltimore County police said.

Art Modell has again arrived, this time posthumously, at the doorstep of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He rose to fame and fortune as the owner of the Cleveland Browns, later relocated for no good reason except Modell's poor business sense, to Baltimore and renamed the Ravens.

On a cool, clear day made for football, Art Modell was laid to rest. Just 12 hours after the Ravens won their opener, 44-13 over the Cincinnati Bengals, more than 400 people — including quarterback Joe Flacco, running back Ray Rice and linebacker Ray Lewis — gathered at Baltimore Hebrew Congregation to pay homage to Modell, the team's former owner, who died at 87 on Sept. 6.

The death of former Ravens owner Art Modell has unleashed a flood of warm memories in Baltimore, but Modell is a more complicated figure for many people, who struggle to forgive him for moving his franchise from Cleveland. That conflicted sensibility lies at the heart of Modell's inability to get into the Pro Football Hall of Fame despite his 43-year legacy as an owner and shaper of the league's television dynasty.